Exposed in Billingsgate

Though there are few things that arouse a crusty, irascible, cantankerous old man full of stubborn ideas, Eurogamer Expo had one scantily clad Greek up its sleeve who was sure to keep the blood pumping

I’m a curmudgeon, and I hate crowds, so it was a faint relief to see that the Eurogamer Expo had plenty of room to manoeuvre once you got inside. We’ll be doing a more general talk about the Expo in the current issue of the magazine, but I just wanted to get a few words in about the undoubted star of the show: God Of War 3.

Only Assassin’s Creed 2 seemed to be attracting as much attention, but strangely there was very little harrumphing at the amount of time people were spending on GOW. Even bad players were a joy to watch thanks to SCE Santa Monica’s remarkable rendering job. Kratos’ avatar is genuinely glorious, with rippling musculature and moody mien yelling out from the screen. The Blades of Athena and new weapon the Cestus carve their bloody way across the screen in livid HD, offering the satisfying metal-through-flesh ker-chunk that we all remember so well.

The demo on offer showed relatively few bits of the game, and nothing we hadn’t really seen before. Still, the epic backdrops of the Titans framing the burning cities really smacks you between the eyes. A brief flying sequence, some chances to swing across a chasm by leaping from Harpie to Harpie, and a tough fight with an awesomely visceral Chimera which culminates with you snapping one of its goat’s horns off and impaling it through the head with it… well, this is the stuff that dreams are made of. Ok, really nasty dreams, but dreams nonetheless.

Kratos’ acrobatic combat style is just as you remember it, with our brooding anti-hero leaping nimbly out of attacks, blocking crisply, and chaining bloody death moves together like he never went away. If anything, SCE has upped the gore quotient, with a centaur’s entrails spilled bloodily across the marble floor – take more than new Flash Bathroom to clear that up – and a remarkable QTE where sun god Helios has his noggin brutally, and extremely slowly, torn away from his body by old scar features. Oooh, tendons.

God of War 3 is – there’s no other word for it – sexy. Assuming you’re aroused by tendons snapping and viscera spilling, and who isn’t? With Modern Warfare 2 missing from the mix, it was the standout visual experience available on any platform at the Expo, and I just can’t wait for the release.